Sojourners - Terrorhttp://www.sojo.net/taxonomy/term/1713/0
enWhy I’m Giving Up Peace for Lenthttp://www.sojo.net/blogs/2015/02/18/why-im-giving-peace-lent
<p>The violence of our world seems to be spiraling out of control. Every news outlet is filled with the latest tragedy and for many, the violence has struck closer to home than they ever imagined. Sadly, much of the violence is being done in the name of religion. Religion — at its best — is designed to be a conduit for right relationship. At it’s worst, used as a tool for manipulation and violence. While the former is certainly happening, the latter appears to be one step ahead at the moment.</p><p>If ever there were a time where the work of peacemaking seemed soft and unrealistic while proposing some kind of fairy tale future reality, it is now. If ever there were a time to set aside the way of reconciliation for the way of revenge, it is now. Peacemaking appears to be a royal waste of time reserved for the ignorant idealists.</p><p>Yet, if ever there were a time the exact opposite case could be made, it is now. In recent history, there has never been a time peacemaking is more necessary. In fact, the moment we deny the necessity for peacemaking, we deny the very mission of God and the vocation of God’s people. God’s work is peace — the holistic repair of relationship — and the vocation of God’s people. We aren’t pawns in a divine drama that will end in an atomic holocaust allowing us to apathetically put our hands up in resignation because “everything is going to hell.” No, the Jesus Community is to announce the reality of God’s kingdom and participate in God’s activity of making all things new. And not just in some future world, but NOW.</p><p><em>Where do we start and how do we keep hope in a world of war?</em></p><p><strong>We need to give up peace for Lent.</strong></p><p><a href="http://www.sojo.net/blogs/2015/02/18/why-im-giving-peace-lent" target="_blank">read more</a></p>God's Politicsinternal enemiesintrospectionjihadLentLenten ReflectionsPeacemakingTerrorWarLife and PeacePeace and NonviolenceWed, 18 Feb 2015 12:44:52 +0000Jon Huckins66586 at http://www.sojo.netFrom 9/11 to ISIS: Resolving the Paradox of the U.S. War on Terrorhttp://www.sojo.net/blogs/2014/09/11/911-isis-resolving-paradox-us-war-terror
<p>It’s been 14 years since our government declared war on terrorism. How are we doing? It feels like a disastrous game of Whack-A-Terrorist, doesn’t it? We kill one terrorist hiding in one hole, and out pops another one from another hole. Now we are facing the newest threat, a terrorist organization seeking to set up a nation-state, ISIS or IS, as its leadership prefers to be called. The Islamic State, at least, would be a concrete opponent. If they hold on to territory and establish a functioning government, we could at least declare war on a tangible target. Though regrettable it would at least make sense within the logic of war in which states fight other states.</p><p>In a <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/frenchrevolution/2014/09/03/how-should-christians-expect-our-nation-to-respond-to-isis-with-wrath-and-vengeance/" target="_blank"> recent article </a> for Patheos.com, <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/frenchrevolution/about/" target="_blank">David French</a> uses Christian Scripture as a justification for “responding to ISIS with wrath and vengeance.” French is a lawyer, a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve and senior counsel at the American Center for Law and Justice. He claims that, according to the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans, while individuals are called upon to love their enemies, there is no such call placed on governments. In fact, God has instituted governmental authority in order to execute his wrath against evildoers. And apparently, or so Romans 13 puts it according to French, to know who the evildoers are one simply needs to look at who governments are punishing. French quotes the relevant passage, Romans 13:3-5:</p><blockquote><p>For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, <em><strong>agents of wrath</strong></em> to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. [Emphasis added by French.]</p></blockquote><p>French concludes that American Christians should have no difficulty determining the correct response to ISIS. Why? By the fact of determining that justice must be executed against ISIS, our government has determined that their violence is not only an offense against American citizens (he names the beheading victims, journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff) but against God himself.</p><p>French’s analysis strains credulity. Doesn’t he realize that the Romans to whom Paul was writing were themselves victims of government persecution? Does he think that these persecuted Christians felt they were being justly punished? And what about Paul himself, a Roman citizen who was persecuted and executed by the Roman government? Doesn’t French realize that by his own argument, the Roman authorities were executing God’s judgment against Paul? And by his own analysis, French is a captain in a military force that is from its origins a justifiable target for God’s wrath. Why? Because the founding act of the United States was a rebellion against a government, and “whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.” (Romans 13:2)</p><p><a href="http://www.sojo.net/blogs/2014/09/11/911-isis-resolving-paradox-us-war-terror" target="_blank">read more</a></p>9/11God's PoliticsISILisisNonviolencePatriot's DayPeacePresident ObamaSeptember 11TerrorTerrorismvengeancewar on terrorLife and PeacePeace and NonviolenceThu, 11 Sep 2014 13:23:40 +0000Suzanne Ross58436 at http://www.sojo.netA Reign of Terrorhttp://www.sojo.net/magazine/2014/08/reign-terror
<p><em>Thermonuclear Monarchy: Choosing Between Democracy and Doom. </em>W.W. Norton and Company.</p><p><a href="http://www.sojo.net/magazine/2014/08/reign-terror" target="_blank">read more</a></p>angerBooksCold WarcontroldoomLovemiracleNuclear WeaponsTerrorCultureLife and PeaceReviewsCulture WatchWed, 09 Jul 2014 18:14:11 +0000Rosalie G. Riegle55711 at http://www.sojo.netSalt and Terror in Afghanistanhttp://www.sojo.net/blogs/2014/02/05/salt-and-terror-afghanistan
<p>Two weeks ago in a room in Kabul, Afghanistan, I joined several dozen people — working seamstresses, some college students, socially engaged teenagers, and a few visiting internationals like myself — to discuss world hunger. Our emphasis was not exclusively their <em>own</em> country’s worsening hunger problems. Rather, tmhe Afghan Peace Volunteers, in whose home we were meeting, draw strength from looking beyond their own very real struggles.</p><p>With us was Hakim, a medical doctor who spent six years working as a public health specialist in the central highlands of Afghanistan and, prior to that, among refugees in Quetta, Pakistan. He helped us understand conditions that lead to food shortages and taught us about diseases, such as kwashiorkor and marasmus, which are caused by insufficient protein or general malnutrition.</p><p>We looked at U.N. figures about hunger in Afghanistan, which show malnutrition rates <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/world/asia/afghanistans-worsening-and-baffling-hunger-crisis.html?_r=0" target="_blank">rising by 50 percent</a> or more compared with 2012. The malnutrition ward at Helmand Province’s Bost Hospital has been admitting 200 children a month for severe, acute malnutrition — four times more than in January 2012.</p><p>A recent <a href="http://www.nytim" target="_blank"><em>New York Times</em> article</a> about the worsening hunger crisis described an encounter with a mother and child in an Afghan hospital: “In another bed is Fatima, less than a year old, who is so severely malnourished that her heart is failing, and the doctors expect that she will soon die unless her father is able to find money to take her to Kabul for surgery. The girl’s face bears a perpetual look of utter terror, and she rarely stops crying.”</p><p>Photos of Fatima and other children in the ward accompanied the article. In our room in Kabul, Hakim projected the photos on the wall. They were painful to see and so were the nods of comprehension from Afghans all too familiar with the agonies of poverty in a time of war.</p><p><a href="http://www.sojo.net/blogs/2014/02/05/salt-and-terror-afghanistan" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Afghanistanchildhood malnutritiondefense budgetforeign aidGod's PoliticsHungermilitary spendingTerrorViolenceLife and PeacePeace and NonviolenceWed, 05 Feb 2014 17:32:05 +0000Kathy Kelly52737 at http://www.sojo.netSyrian Christians May Get Pulled into Civil Warhttp://www.sojo.net/blogs/2013/09/24/syrian-christians-may-get-pulled-civil-war
<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">A huge statue of the Virgin Mary towers over churches, monasteries and mosques in the Syrian city of Maaloula, where a dialect of the Aramaic language of Jesus is still spoken.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The town has managed to stay out of the Syrian conflict between Sunni Muslim rebels and the regime of dictator Bashar Assad, as have most of Syria’s 2 million Christians.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">But worsening violence has forced the community into a corner: Continuous clashes between the rebels and the regime in this isolated town of 2,000 people as well as other Christian towns over the past two weeks have many Christians worried that they will no longer be allowed to stay neutral.</p><p><a href="http://www.sojo.net/blogs/2013/09/24/syrian-christians-may-get-pulled-civil-war" target="_blank">read more</a></p>AssadBashar Assadcivil warconflictDamascusEgyptGod's PoliticsIraqMaaloulaMiddle EastPalestine/IsraelRacial and Social JusticerebelsSama TVsyriaSyrian ChristiansTerrorWarFaith and PoliticsTue, 24 Sep 2013 18:23:46 +0000Stephen Starr50506 at http://www.sojo.netTexts of Terror and Wealthhttp://www.sojo.net/magazine/2013/09/texts-terror-and-wealth-0
<p>Reflections on the Revised Common Lectionary, Cycle C</p><p><a href="http://www.sojo.net/magazine/2013/09/texts-terror-and-wealth-0" target="_blank">read more</a></p>amnestyangelsBible StudyclaycoinFearfriendsHospitalityJubileekarmaLazarusLectionarypotterPrivilegeReflectionsheepstrangersTerrorwealthFaith and SpiritualityLife and PeaceLiving the wordDepartmentsThu, 15 Aug 2013 18:22:03 +0000Martin L. Smith50010 at http://www.sojo.netCatholic Bishops: Don’t Let Boston Attacks Derail Immigration Reformhttp://www.sojo.net/blogs/2013/04/22/catholic-bishops-dont-let-boston-attacks-derail-immigration-reform
<p style="font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Leading U.S. Catholic bishops on Monday denounced efforts to use the Boston Marathon bombings to derail the push for immigration reform, saying it is wrong to brand all immigrants as dangerous and that a revamped system would in fact make Americans safer.</p><p style="font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“Opponents of immigration … will seize on anything, and when you’ve got something as vivid and as recent as the tragedy in Boston it puts another arrow in their quiver,” New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told reporters.</p><p style="font-size: 12px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">“To label a whole group of people – namely, the vast population of hard-working, reliable, virtuous immigrants – to label them, to demean them because of the vicious, tragic actions of two people is just ridiculous,” he said. “Illogical. Unfair. Unjust.”</p><p><a href="http://www.sojo.net/blogs/2013/04/22/catholic-bishops-dont-let-boston-attacks-derail-immigration-reform" target="_blank">read more</a></p>Boston bombingsBoston marathon bombingcomprehensive immigration reformGod's PoliticsImmigrationimmigration reformRacial and Social JusticeTerrorTerrorismImmigrationMon, 22 Apr 2013 20:42:56 +0000David Gibson48023 at http://www.sojo.netWeapons of Terrorhttp://www.sojo.net/blogs/2012/10/25/weapons-terror
<p class="p1">When the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, the world was ushered into a period of weapons paranoia. The Cold War, of course, was hallmarked by the obsessive weapons one-upmanship of the United States and the Soviet Union.</p><p class="p1">Who, then, would have thought that in the 21<sup>st</sup>&nbsp;century, the seeming weapon of choice would not be some sort of super-nuclear missile or an ultra-deadly biological toxin, but that it would, instead, be women?</p><p class="p1">“Women are being used as weapons of terror,” Dr. Rubina Greenwood told an audience last week at a congressional briefing on the rights of minority women in Pakistan organized by the Hindu American Foundation.&nbsp;</p><p><a href="http://www.sojo.net/blogs/2012/10/25/weapons-terror" target="_blank">read more</a></p>God's PoliticsHinduMuslimPakistanrapesexual violenceTerrorWeaponsWomenHuman RightsLife and PeaceThu, 25 Oct 2012 13:42:07 +0000Dawn Cherie Araujo44692 at http://www.sojo.netA Peacemakers Litanyhttp://www.sojo.net/blogs/2011/11/04/peacemakers-litany
<p><strong><a href="/sites/default/files/images/knotted-celt.jpg" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px;"><img alt="knotted celt" class="size-large wp-image-36499 alignright" src="/sites/default/files/images/knotted-celt-300x225.jpg" title="knotted celt" height="225" width="300"></a></strong></p><p>When the injustices of this world seems too much for us to handle, help us to remember that you fed 5,000 people with only five loaves of bread and two fish</p><p><a href="http://www.sojo.net/blogs/2011/11/04/peacemakers-litany" target="_blank">read more</a></p>AfghanistanAfricaAmericaArtcathleen falsanichangeChildrenCivilitycourageFaithgenerosityGod's PoliticsHopeHospitalityinjusticesIraqIsraelJerusalemJusticeLordMennoniteMoneymoney changersneighborNeighborsoppressionPalestinepeacemakerpeacemakersPovertyPowerprayPrayerSojournersSpiritualityTerrorTheologyUNViolenceworldFaith and SpiritualityLife and PeaceFri, 04 Nov 2011 23:26:57 +0000the Web Editors35054 at http://www.sojo.netNews: Monday Morning Quick Links (Updated)http://www.sojo.net/blogs/2011/10/31/news-monday-morning-quick-links-updated
<p><a href="/sites/default/files/images/golden-calf.JPG"><img class="alignright size-large wp-image-35728" title="golden calf" src="/sites/default/files/images/golden-calf-300x211.jpg" alt="golden calf" width="300" height="211" /></a><br />
Abuse at Afghan Prisons. How Catholic Conservatives could turn the GOP presidential race. OpEd: Jesus would not #OccupyWallStreet. OWS is "largely secular." Religious leaders see immigration as "God's Call." OpEd: Alabama new immigration law has unintended consequences. OpEd: Wall Street Worship. Could 2012 be the most ideological election in years? And much more. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.sojo.net/blogs/2011/10/31/news-monday-morning-quick-links-updated" target="_blank">read more</a></p>2012 electionAlabamabailoutBeliefcandidateChurchesConservativeConservativesconstitutiondenominationdenominationsEconomicEvangelicalEvolutiongeneralGod's callGod's PoliticsHealthhuffington postImmigrationimmigration statusJesusJewsLos AngelesMilitaryMovementMuslimOccupyWallStreetpolitical debatePresident ObamaPropheticRacial and Social JusticeReligionreligious beliefsRepublicanrepublican presidentsocial conservativessocial issuessojoTerrorTerrorismTortureUnited NationsUnited StatesWall Streetwall street journalWashingtonwashington postFaith and PoliticsMon, 31 Oct 2011 17:35:48 +0000the Web Editors34921 at http://www.sojo.net